Frederick Douglass, ca. 1879. Photograph by George K. Warren (d. 1884). National Archives: NARA
hindrance and obstruction, he continued
to learn by himself. As a slave, he didn‟t
have an easy life. This master put him in
different families as a worker. He
worked hard and hard and he didn‟t
have a time to learn. The day his master
put him into Mr. Covey‟s house who was
well known as a “negro-breaker,” his
hope to be one day a free vanished. To
break slaves, Mr. Covey used terrors by
beating slaves every day until the blood
flowed from their bodies. In addition,
he gave them the hardest work they
had to do quickly, not matter it was
night or day. Mr. Douglass was nearly
broken, but one day he decided to fight
against Mr. Covey. He won the battle.
Since that day, Mr. Covey didn‟t beat
him. Then, Mr. Douglass rekindled his
desire to be free man. Fortunately, after one year with Mr. Covey, his master
put him again in the Auld‟s house, there
where he had learned his first alphabetical letters.
Although he suffered inhuman
conditions, Mr. Douglas kept doing what
he thought the most important, learning. When Mrs. Auld stopped teaching
him on the orders of her husband, he
imagined stratagems. One of them consisted of learning outside the home with
the help of poor little white boys. To
win their sympathy, when he met them,
he brought bread. The boys appreciated
that and they helped him in reading.
Once he knew how to read, he began to
read newspapers that he picked up in
the street and even books. The first
book he bought was “The Columbian
Orator.” Another challenge was to
write. It was not easy. The law, the people and even the Aulds were against him.
Nobody had the courage to defy the law
that prohibits the slaves teaching, so he
opted to practice writing with his little
white boys. As a poor slave, he couldn‟t
afford to buy books and inks. So, he
used different kinds of things; boarded
fences, brick walls, pavements and
lumps of chalk. Without anything, only
his desire and determination, he succeeded in learning how to read and
write. He became one of the most famous orators after he escaped from
slavery.
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